


Battle Between the Sexes

by RainbowArches



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Aromantic-Asexual Maria Hill, Canon Gay Character, Gen, Save Victoria Hand
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-08
Updated: 2014-11-08
Packaged: 2018-02-24 13:33:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2583197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainbowArches/pseuds/RainbowArches
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A rant about sexism in the work place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Battle Between the Sexes

“It’s ironic that a protection and peacekeeping organization is full of men who can’t accept that their female colleagues climbed the ranks as high or higher than them on hard work alone. Ironic. Am I using that word right?”

               

“Sexist, Maria. Just say it. It’s sexist.”

               

“It’s sexist and asinine.”

               

“That’s what sexism is.”

               

Victoria’s fingers curled elegantly around her coffee cup, her chin soaking up the steam. They didn’t get to do this very often, eat together in an actual restaurant, chat and vent. Often their conflicting schedules kept them away from each other, busy dealing with bitter disrespectful underlings who didn’t know them well enough to know better, who should know better generally. They took their breaks together whatever chance they got.

               

Maria became clumsy in her agitation, jerking her hands emphatically and spilling the coffee she forgot she had. She sucked it off her thumb. Victoria slipped her a napkin to wipe the table with before she could use her sleeve. Maria liked to be immaculately dressed at all times, but she tended to forget in her caffeine-induced excitement, collecting easily avoidable stains.

               

“Their reasoning is ridiculous. I must be sleeping with the director so I’m a whore. I’m not sleeping with anyone else so I’m frigid. I won’t go out with them so I’m stuck-up. I’m a professional so I’m a lesbian-“

               

“The best.”

              

  “Absolutely. I take my job seriously, I know the protocol, and I have expectations of my agents that they will meet if they value their jobs as much as I do, so I’m a bitch. Well, guess what? I’m not sleeping with the director. I’m his second because I’m dedicated, I work hard, and I don’t kiss his ass. I’m not sleeping with anyone because aromantic-asexual is real whether you get it or not-“

              

  “Not to mention the no fraternization policy. You know the protocol.”

              

  “Exactly. You think they’d know better than to ask. And I take my work seriously because _Shield is serious work_. It’s basically a marriage contract. But some guys just can’t wrap their heads around women marrying their jobs until death do us part.”

             

   “Depressing, but you’re right. Our wife- or husband, I suppose is more likely in this case- will probably kill us sooner than divorce us. You’d think that would command a little respect.”

               

Of all the women she worked with, Victoria related to Maria the most in work ethic and how they were treated. Victoria could count her friends on one hand, and Maria was the closest. Victoria ranked as high as she did by being a stickler for the rules. That didn’t make her popular, but she wasn’t in this to win votes. She trusted the system because it worked. She commanded the system because it got her taken seriously. She was openly gay because that encouraged certain men to treat her like a professional, as long as she didn’t betray a sense of humour. Her friends knew her better, a few acquaintances knew her better, her girlfriend knew her better, but many of her colleagues did not. Like Maria, she was a bitch with a stick up her ass, no fun at all. And way more intimidating, she guessed, being older.

               

How could it be, she wondered, that these people assumed their female colleagues were sleeping their way to the top when that idea had never occurred to the women themselves? Did they not realise they’d climb the ladder faster if they stopped resenting women for being good at their jobs and emulated them instead? And how did Romanov, Carter, May, Morse, and all these other professional young women avoid that treatment?

               

The cool kids, Maria called them, along with Barton, Mackenzie, Triplett, and a few others. Not high-ranking enough to be threatening. They were field agents, extremely gifted in combat and espionage, clever, sexy, flirty, deceptively chill, less concerned with protocol. And that was fine because they got the job done and they made it look fun. They took orders, they didn’t give them. They were friendly and safe that way. Also a skewed perception, and very annoying, but so different in nature from what she and Maria dealt with it reached new levels of offense. There was not a job in the world where men and women were treated equally. Even assassins who could kill you in your sleep were patronized by their cocky male counterparts.

               

The cool kids. She didn’t know them well but she liked what she heard. Maria held them in high regard. They were the students who understood and respected the motives of their teachers. Victoria and Maria were the teachers who cared too much for their students to let them off easy. We’re not here to make friends. Shield is serious work.

               

“If we could command respect we wouldn’t be sitting here complaining about how we get no respect. We have to earn it.”

              

  “We earned it ages ago. Some people understand this. You have to command it from the people who don’t.”   

             

   “Right now I have to command a strike team. So much easier.”

             

   They split the check and went back to work, to all its unfairness and injustice, because the world needed them to, until the next time when they could escape together over coffee.


End file.
